Each Friday at noon, KLRU kids can hop on a spaceship to Stardust Space Academy on the new NASA-developed kids series Space Racers. With personified spaceship characters, preschoolers will have fun learning about scientific investigation and observations, technology, the solar system and more! In addition, Space Racersnow has a wonderful website spaceracers.org that includes episodes, games, and printables! KLRU is proud to carry this fantastic new show for those who think and dream of the universe!

KLRU Educational Services will be on hand for two events connected to the Texas Book Festival. The first, a joint presentation by the Texas Book Festival, KLRU, and the AISD Department of Communications and Community Engagement is a book reading and signing by the bilingual children’s author Yuyi Morales, who was profiled by PBS and regularly has a spot airing during the PBS Kids block (which you can see here). The book signing will take place at Mathews Elementary, 906 West Lynn, on Friday, October 25, from 4-5 pm.

The second event will be our three-hour appearance at the Texas Book Festival itself, on Sunday, October 27, from 12 noon – 3 pm. We will be at the Children’s Activity Tent (on Colorado St. between 12th & 13th) with our iPads loaded with learning apps and with none other than Clifford the Big Red Dog.

Now, what gets lost in these changes? Because we have no new episodes for Maya & Miguel or for Barney, and because of a slowdown of production for Electric Company, we have currently dropped them from the daily lineup. We especially feel the loss of Electric Company because it’s popular for older kids, so we are hoping that we can build up a bank of new episodes for airing later in the school year. In the meantime, all of these shows can be accessed online.

If you have questions or comments on the new lineup, please contact Benjamin Kramer, Director of Educational Services. We hope you enjoy these changes!

With the proliferation of screen-based activities available for and embraced by youth, KLRU Educational Services has developed a set of guidelines for digital media use called “Smart Screen Time / La Pantalla Inteligente™.” In addition to offering quality educational media, KLRU Educational Services staff believe that explicit guidelines for how to use these media has never been more needed – for parents, caretakers, educators, and the children themselves. The guidelines have been incorporated into all of KLRU Educational Services’ messaging and are now appearing on-air and online in a series of explanatory video clips. The guidelines are as follows, with the video clips to follow.

1. Knowing “smart time” vs. “silly time” - Kids instinctively know when they are viewing or playing media that is cognitively stimulating, and media that is pure entertainment. We believe that there is a role for both in kids’ lives. Adults who provide access to digital media ought to have conversations about the appropriate balance of smart and silly with the children in their care, and help children monitor their own media habits.

2. When the brain slows down, turn the screen off! - All viewers of digital media have experienced moments when they are neither asleep nor alert, but in some in-between “zombie” zone. For adults, this may be a reasonable break from a long day’s work. For kids, it’s a different matter because this time is neither truly restful, nor is it meaningfully engaging. In short, it’s lost time during a period of rapid brain growth and development. For that reason, it’s important for adults in kids’ lives to turn the screen off and send them to another activity (including sleep!). Kids can become self-monitors of their own zombie states, and can learn alternatives to drooling in front of a screen.

3. Talk throughout the day, including during screen time - Studies have shown that dialogue can enhance the learning outcomes of using educational digital media. Look no further than our own characters to see role models for our kids – our characters use sophisticated vocabulary, ask good questions, and seek solution pathways for desired information. In short, they are all “smart” chatterboxes! Adults can ask kids for narrative summaries of show episodes, or to describe strategies they are using to advance in games.

4. Watch and play on screens together - This is corollary of guideline #3. Whereas dialogue about kids’ viewing or playing is great, an even stronger learning experience occurs when adults and kids engage together with educational media. KLRU Educational Services selects PBS evening programs each month for “Family Choice” viewing, when we encourage generations to sit, watch, and discuss together. This idea can be extended to our programming throughout the day, and to game-playing online and on mobile media. One caution: current research suggests that all screen time stop 90 minutes before a child’s bedtime. It appears that the blue/light white from LCD screens can signal the brain to wake up, making bedtime a more difficult proposition.

5. Read both at home and at school – every day! As proud as we are of the educational quality of our media, KLRU Educational Services recognizes that reading remains the most efficient, effective method of acquiring new information, building vocabulary, and experiencing new worlds of learning. In fact, a good number of our programs and games explicitly steer children to reading experiences. Most children still need adults to bridge the gap from screen to text, and to help them locate appropriate reading materials. This cannot solely occur in school – children who practice literacy as a desired activity during out-of-school time have markedly better learning outcomes that endure throughout their lives (International Reading Association, 1998). We know our job is done when kids instinctively and enthusiastically turn from our media to books as a logical next step in their learning lives.

From April 15-19, The Cat in the Hat shows kids some amazing animals, including three premiere episodes April 15-17.

Babies / Fast – Monday, April 15 at 8:30 am & 2 pmBabies – Sally is looking after some baby hamsters, but how can she and Nick hold them right? Well, different animals hold their babies different ways.Fast – It’s a race to the treehouse, but Nick and Sally wish they could go as fast as an airplane! How about a peregrine? asks The Cat. What’s that? The fastest creature in the world!

Little Lemmings / Keep The Beat — Tuesday, April 16 at 8:30 am & 2 pmLittle Lemmings – It’s cold outside, but Nick and Sally want to keep playing. Is there a way to stay warm out in the cold? Cat’s friend Lars the Lemming will know! He lives in the Wundra-Bundra-Tundra. It’s cold out, but with Lars’ fur coat, he doesn’t even notice!Keep the Beat – Nick and Sally have been running around the backyard and now their chests are thumpity thumping! The Cat explains that that is their hearts boom boom booming! But why? wonders Sally.

Gorillas In The Nest / Tale Of A Dragon — Wednesday, April 17 at 8:30 am & 2 pm Gorillas in the Nest – Sally and Nick have made a sleepover tent on the floor. But it’s not very comfortable. The Cat’s friend Gordon the Gorilla knows how to make a comfortable bed.Tale of a Dragon – Dragons don’t really exist, but Cat knows some lizard friends who are oh-so like dragons! They can show Nick and Sally how to pretend to be dragons.

In a week of encore episodes, kids can enjoy the most musical moments of DINOSAUR TRAIN for a week of dance-tastic adventures. Buddy, Shiny, Tiny and Don explore ponds, gardens, oceans and more in “That’s Not a Dinosaur/Tiny’s Garden,” “Remember the Alamosaurus/Sunrise, Sunset,” “Elmer Elasmosaurus/Dinosaur Block Party,” “Junior Conductor Jamboree/Troodon Train Day” and “Buddy Explores the Tyrannosaurs/Rainy Day Fight.” They sing and dance as they encourage kids to get outside, get into nature and make their own discoveries.